Target: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AidsTarget: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Some 39 million people around the world are living with HIV, while about 20 million have died of the disease since the early 1980s, the UN estimates.

The worst-affected region is sub-Saharan Africa, where the death toll has caused massive damage to social fabric and economies of many countries.

However the UN says reduced infection rates in Thailand and Uganda, driven by vigourous political efforts in those countries, prove that the tide of the disease can be turned back.

Malaria - which kills one million people every year, 90% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa is also being targeted. Since 2000, death rates from have fallen in some countries, due to the UN's distribution of free insecticide-treated mosquito nets and more widely available preventative medicines.

In another positive move, more than $290 million has been provided by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 80 countries.